Artificial Intelligence

Discussion Prompt: Will AI solve the “information overload“ challenge for intelligence agencies?

In a 1993 white paper, the US Scientific and Technical Intelligence Committee (STIC) spelled out the need for analytical “paradigm shifts” to cope with the rapidly expanding “global production of information”, widely dubbed ‘the information overload’. 25 years later, self-learning algorithms, commonly referred to as Artificial Intelligence, are often heralded as that very technological revolution, suited to provide for either a “new kind of security” or a new age of government surveillance, or both. Against this backdrop, we try to understand the current and projected role of artificial intelligence in the work of intelligence agencies. Is it the technological breakthrough agencies have been seeking? Has it propelled us into a new intelligence governance dimension, where we require specific and updated regulation and control? Or is it a continuation of technology support systems which simply aid decision makers?